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“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” Psalm 36:5 (NLT)

Regardless of the family members who may surround you at home (whether it’s one person or 10), or the friends whom you hang out with every weekend, or even those Monday-through-Friday coworkers that can be categorized as close buddies, do you ever just feel alone and unloved? It’s like there’s a definitive limit to the love, care, and concern that these people (as limited humans) have for you…and you’ve somehow hit it. It’s totally illogical to feel discarded and even abandoned when you’re literally surrounded, but I’m pretty sure we’ve all felt this way at some point.

But God. This little—yet powerful—phrase got me thinking about all the promises in the Bible about the limitless love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness God has for us. Now, when the writers of both the Old and New Testaments tried to describe just how immeasurable God’s love is for us, they used what they knew to be absolutely incalculable to them: natural elements. Today, a quick Google search can tell us that the deepest part of the ocean, called the Challenger Deep, has been measured to be about 36,000 feet—or 7 miles—deep. Similarly, a few key clicks later, we’d learn that between Earth and the edge of the observable universe there are 46 billion light-years (whatever that means).

But thousands of years ago, when those Holy-Spirit-inspired men needed to record the vastness of God’s love, they didn’t have Google. The boundless sky’s height and unfathomable ocean’s depth were perfect descriptors. And, although modern science may have (sort of) calculated these distances, we can still take great comfort in the Bible’s depiction of our amazing God. Here’s just a glimpse…

How much does God love us? “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds” (Psalm 36:5); But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Will the Lord ever forsake us? “And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8); “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).

How merciful is God? “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23); “For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:11).

Can we really be forgiven? “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12); “You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

Let me ask again, how much does God love you, friend? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). If you haven’t accepted this free gift of grace, of God’s immeasurable love, why not do so right now?

“Lord, if just one is reading this who doesn’t know Your amazing grace, mercy, and love, let them surrender their way for Yours, exchanging their sin for Your perfect righteousness.”

For His Glory

Julianne Winkler Smith
TRBC Women’s Life